Steve Nicol shares who he thinks was the better Liverpool manager… Bill Shankly or Jurgen Klopp

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As Jurgen Klopp prepares to leave Liverpool, talk is starting to turn to the legacy he will leave behind.

Of course, Jurgen himself has been keen to dissuade such chatter. There’s still a season to finish and potentially four trophies to win. How that all plays out will factor into how the German is ultimately seen. Nevertheless, it’s natural that in a club where managers are revered, it’s a conversation that’s going to come up.

One man who’s well placed to comment on such matters is Liverpool legend Steve Nicol. Having played under Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish, Nicol has had a schooling in iconic Reds managers.

And asked by ESPN FC exactly where Klopp fits into all of that, Nicol said that the 56-year-old is right in amongst it. Not quite Shankly level, but not far behind.

“All through Liverpool’s history it’s been Shankly, Paisley and Dalglish,” said the former right-back. “Klopp in my opinion has just gone on to that list.

“Nobody goes above Shankly. Shankly’s at the top of the tree. He’s Ollie Watkins for Villa and he’s got three behind him: Paisley, Dalglish, Klopp.”

Shankly still top of the tree

No matter what they do or what they achieve at Liverpool, it’s unlikely that any manager will ever put Shankly in the shade. In fact, it feels a stretch that anyone could ever even be truly spoken in the same breath as the great Scot.

Paisley obviously won more with the club, but it was Shanks who built the kingdom and handed him the keys.

In the modern era, it simply isn’t possible to do for the club what their manager of 15 years did. Almost 43 years on from his death, Liverpool is still Bill Shankly. That won’t ever change.

Seen through that prism, it is remarkable that Jurgen has put himself amongst such exalted company. The other three that Nicol mention are all British.

In the case of Paisley and Dalglish they were players at the club and so had an existing connection to it and to the fans.

But Klopp was an outsider to that. He had to come in and start from zero, winning the supporters’ trust at a time where it had been chipped away over the previous half decade. It’s safe to say that he did that and then some.

You can bet that humble as he is, Jurgen will dismiss any claims that he’s anywhere near these three great men in terms of being a Liverpool legend. Indeed, he already has. But he’s wrong.

It isn’t often that a manager comes along that just connects with a club and the city that it belongs to. Our boss did that and the stories of the team he built will be passed down the generations in Liverpool. That will last forever.

As Klopp’s reign enters its final few months, Nicol’s words are a reminder of what we still have with us right now. We must cherish it. These are the good old days and they don’t last forever.